Grandma Talley and Aunt Geri made a visit to St. Louis June 17-21. In honor of their visit my mother-in-law hosted a dinner at her home on Friday, June 18. It was a Saint Louis themed dinner and everything on the menu had something to do with our city.
The Menu
Toasted Ravioli
St. Louis BBQ Ribs
Twice Baked Potatoes
Slaw
Baked Beans
Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes
Toasted ravioli, or breaded deep-fried ravioli, is an appetizer created and popularized, according to common claims, in St. Louis, Missouri. Toasted ravioli can be found on the menus of many St. Louis restaurants. Legend says that in 1947, a chef in St. Louis accidentally dropped the pasta into oil instead of water.
I contributed the
Fitz's Root Beer, a St. Louis tradition. Fitz's Bottling Company is a regional soda brand in St. Louis, Missouri. Fitz's has a microbrewery and restaurant located in University City, Missouri on the historic Delmar Loop. Although Fitz's is best know for root beer we also enjoyed Fitz's Cream Soda. Click on Fitz's Root Beer and read about the history of this yummy beverage.
I also brought the gooey butter cake. I bought the cake from
Gooey Louie. Click on Gooey Louie to find out more about this yummy bakery that sells gooey butter cakes in a variety of flavors. Gooey butter cake is a type of cake traditionally made in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. It is generally served as a type of coffee cake and not as a dessert. There are two distinct variants of the gooey butter cake. There is a bakers gooey butter and a cream cheese and yellow cake mix variant. It is believed to have originated by accident in the 1930s when a St. Louis German American baker was trying to make regular cake batter but reversed the proportions of sugar and flour.
My mom and dad made creative ice cream cone cupcakes. The ice cream cone would seem to be a simple and unpolitical a treat, yet it's origin is hotly contested. The most favored folk tale regarding the invention of the ice cream cone takes place at the 1904 World's Fair held in St. Louis, Missouri. Two food vendors had stalls next to each other. Arnold Fornachou made and sold ice cream. His neighbor, Ernest A. Hamwi, had come to the United States from Damascus, Syria. Hamwi made sweet wafers (much like today's wafer-like cookies). Hamwi cooked the wafers on a waffle iron heated over a coal fire, coated them with sugar, and rolled the wafers while they were still hot so they were easy to eat and carry. When Fornachou ran out of dishes to hold his ice cream, Hamwi rolled his wafers into a cone shape instead of a tube, and the gentlemen topped the wafer with scoops of Fornachou's ice cream. Zalabias became "World's Fair Cornucopias," and the cone concept was born.
No trip to St. Louis would be complete without a souvenir from the St. Louis Cardinals. I made sure Grandma and Aunt Geri took some St. Louis Cardinal peanuts and baseball shaped cookies home with them. They also got a bag of
Dad's Oatmeal Scotch Oatmeal Cookies to take home and share with their friends. As the family story goes, Dad's Original Scotch Oatmeal Cookies arrived in California from Scotland around 1900. Shortly thereafter, the parent company began selling rights to the company name, making Dad's Cookie Company one of the country's first franchised businesses. In 1927, one of the company's salesmen passed through St. Louis and visited Carpenter's Ice Cream on Goodfellow Avenue. After sampling the wares, Mr. Carpenter realized the unique flavor of the Scotch Oatmeal Cookie would ideally complement his ice cream so he obtained the franchise for the St. Louis area.
Ken and I with our fathers.
Ken and I had our parents over to our house to celebrate Father's Day. We continued eating our way through St. Louis favorites by having St. Louis style pizza. Ken's parents brought pizza and salad from Pirrone's Pizza. Pirrone's is one of our favorite places to get pizza in St. Louis. The characteristics of St. Louis-style pizza are a super-thin yeast-less crust, the use of Provel processed cheese, and pizzas cut into squares or rectangles instead of large wedge shaped slices. Provel is a trademark for three cheeses fused to form one (provolone, Swiss, and white cheddar), Provel cheese was developed by the St. Louis firm Costa Grocery in the 1950s and is made in Wisconsin primarily for the St. Louis market. The cheese is not widely available outside the St. Louis-area.
I kept the tradition of making homemade ice cream on Father's Day alive by finally making a successful batch of ice cream. My chocolate ice cream turned out perfectly and we enjoyed chocolate ice cream with all of the toppings. It was fun creating sundaes with the following toppings: (strawberries, whipped cream, sprinkles, chocolate fudge, nuts, and cherries)
